Flåm Railway

(Photo: Wikipedia and Olaf Andreas Svanøe) In the Middle Ages, there were two churches on Flåm. One where the church is today, the other at Fretheim. Both churches were probably stave churches. The church building that was erected at Fretheim blew down after only a year. The church that you can see now was initially tarred and dark brown. Around 1830 it was painted white, and kept that color for almost a hundred years, before turning brown again. The church is a long wooden church. It is relatively small, with room for about 150 people. It has a large number of illustrations, with acanthus borders, roses, simple figures of lions, hares, foxes and deer in addition to landscapes and trees. The church pews still have doors, and the church has communion silver from as far back as the 16th century.

(Photo: Bane Nor) Berekvam is located at 343 m above sea level. In the past, there was a so-called letter house, a grocer and a primary school at Berekvam. In addition, there was a very popular café here. There is reason to believe that the horses were particularly happy in the café. They had to pull carts with heavy tourists up the slopes, and at the café it was mandatory that they rest for an hour. In those days, tourists could enjoy the serving of both beer and wine. After the railway took over, the travel experience became somewhat more sober. Berekvam is the only station with double tracks for crossing. Here there will be a short wait due to oncoming trains. Please keep the doors closed.

(Photo: Njål Svingheim, Jernbaneverket) Blomheller is located 450 meters above sea level. Until 1944, all trains on the Flåm Line were steam-powered. In 1944, the Kjosfossen Hydroelectric Power Plant was completed. This is located close to the Kjosfossen stop. From 1947, all trains were powered by electricity. Most of the power production is used to operate the railway, including the Flåm Line. During the Second World War, the Norwegian forces wanted to sabotage the line to make life difficult for the occupiers. Thus, it was decided that the Blomheller tunnel would be blown up. This was a difficult job because the rock here is so hard. The operation was carried out, but the blasting did not cause very extensive damage. The tunnel was cleared and repaired relatively quickly. You can still see the hole in the tunnel roof from the dynamite charge.

(Photo: Wikipedia) Myrdalsberget with its 21 sharp bends is part of the Rallarvegen, which was built in 1893. This part of the track, Pinnalia, between Kjosfossen and Nåli, was a feared stretch in the old days. Snow slides and rockfalls gave the place a bad reputation. But due to necessary and extensive safety work, the 300-meter-long section is perhaps one of the safest on the Flåm Railway.

(Photo: Visit Norway) Kjosfossen waterfall with the power plant is located 669 m above sea level, and there is a photo stop here for about 5 minutes. Please note that the platform can be slippery. The waterfall has an impressive free fall of 93 meters. Kjosfoss power station was put into operation on October 27, 1944, and just a little over a month later the first electric motor vehicle went on the line to Flåm.